


Shelduck Holmes

by Small_Hobbit



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Duck AU, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-06 08:59:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14638491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Small_Hobbit/pseuds/Small_Hobbit
Summary: Shelduck Holmes and his companion Dr Ruddy Duck find something strange in their pond.





	Shelduck Holmes

**Author's Note:**

> Written for DW's Ushobwri New Frontiers Challenge, because I've never written ducks before.

Shelduck Holmes waddled his way around the pond, followed by Dr Ruddy Duck.  Suddenly he stopped so abruptly Ruddy waddled into him.

“What’s that?” Shelduck quacked.  He pointed with his beak towards something white which was caught in the reeds by the side of the pond.  “Give me a hand to pull it in.”

“I’m a duck,” Ruddy said, “I don’t have hands.”

“It’s a figure of speech.  Use your beak then.”

The two ducks pulled the article onto the grass.

“It’s a bag,” Shelduck said.  “I wonder what’s inside it?”

He wiggled his feet in the mouth of the bag and a number of shiny red stones fell out.

Ruddy used his feet to spread them out.

“Those are jewels,” Shelduck explained.  “Humans think they’re very important.”

“So someone will be back for them?”

“Probably tonight.  But I think the jewels don't belong to the people who dropped them in our pond, so it would be good if we could stop them retrieving them.”  Then he added thoughtfully, “Unless it’s the police who come, of course.”

“How will we know the different?”

“If it’s the police there will be a number of them and they’ll make a lot of noise and everyone will see them.  If it’s the thieves then they won’t want anyone to see them.”

“Fair enough, so what are we going to do?”

“Much as it pains me to say it, I think we’re going to need the assistance of my brother.”

*****

Mandarin Holmes had listened with interest to the problem his brother had brought him and, after consultation with some of the other wildfowl living on the pond, it was arranged that the pen swan currently sitting on her nest would hide the jewels amongst her eggs.  The cob would be on guard so they would be quite safe.

One of the geese remembered a story in which a goose had swallowed a blue gem and had suggested that as an alternative.  He’d rapidly gone off the idea when it was pointed out the goose had been eaten in the end.

The plan worked brilliantly.  The thieves, in their desperation to find the jewels, had made sufficient noise to draw the attention of those living nearby, who had called the police.

The thieves were chased and arrested, and whilst this was occurring Shelduck Holmes and Dr Ruddy Duck pulled the bag out of the swan’s nest and into the path of the returning police officers.

Once they had watched the police escort the thieves to the police cars, Shelduck and Ruddy nodded at each other and high feathered their wings.

 

 


End file.
